Sgt. Jasmine Jacobs of the National Guard in Georgia has always plaited her hair into two twists around her head. She has been in the military for six years and has worn her hair natural (meaning no chemical treatments [perms] or hair extensions [weaves]) for four of those years. But according to the new hair-grooming requirements the U.S. Army recently released, her hair is now out of regulation.

And so are the Afro-centric hairstyles of many black women in the Army, who make up 31 percent of Army women.

Jacobs, who said she is “kind of at a loss now with what to do with my hair,” has started a White House petition asking the Army to rethink its new hair guidelines. The petition has collected more than 7,000 signatures from soldiers and civilians, but needs to reach 100,000 signatures by April 19th in order for the White House to address it.

Females with natural hair take strides to style their natural hair in a professional manner when necessary; however, changes to AR 670-1 offer little to no options for females with natural hair… These new changes are racially biased and the lack of regard for ethnic hair is apparent.

The new Army Regulation 670-1 was published Tuesday and illustrates with photos the types of hairstyles that are unauthorized for women. Those include dreadlocks, twists or any type of matted or coiled hair. A particularly cumbersome requirement disallows the bulk of a woman’s hair to “exceed more than 2″ from her scalp.” That rules out Afros and most types of non-chemically altered black hair.

Basically, almost every natural hair option that black women in the Army could wear is now off limits. One of the few traditionally natural hairstyles that was listed as appropriate is cornrows, but a slew of specifications and rules surrounded even that. The diameter of each cornrow can’t be more than one-fourth of an inch, and no more than one-eighth of an inch of scalp may be shown between cornrows.

The only way to realistically meet the new standards would be to shave one’s head, perm one’s hair or wear weaves or wigs.

Jacobs said twists like the one she wears are very popular among black women soldiers because the style requires little maintenance when in the field. Her hair’s thickness and curliness makes pulling her hair back into a bun (a style popular among white women soldiers) impossible.

A spokesperson for the Army said the grooming changes are “necessary to maintain uniformity within a military population.” When that need for “uniformity” erases the ethnic differences of a group of women and forces them to constrain themselves to European standards of hair, it presents a serious problem.

“I think, at the end of the day, a lot of people don’t understand the complexities of natural hair… I’m disappointed to see the Army, rather than inform themselves on how black people wear their hair, they’ve white-washed it all,” said Jacobs.

When we tried to warn everyone that so-called “Net Neutrality” would eventually lead to massive tax hikes we had people laugh at us and write us angry emails, politely informing us that we didn’t know what we were talking about. Well how about now?

From CNS News:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler acknowledged in congressional testimony today that an Internet tax–which he had previously said would not be imposed–could be imposed in the future.Wheeler’s remarks came during a Tuesday appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he was asked to shed light on the process by which the FCC passed rules last month regulating the Internet.Wheeler’s admission came after Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) asked him to go on the record with his previous assurances that there would be no new taxes.A fact sheet Wheeler issued about the rules on February 4 stated: “The Order will not impose, suggest or authorize any new taxes or fees–there will be no automatic Universal Service fees applied and the congressional moratorium on Internet taxation applies to broadband.”

However, the new FCC rules reclassified Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as Title II utilities, which are normally subjected to a USF fee. The fund is meant to enable the provision of universal service to customers of the utilities that contribute. The commission’s decision granted ISPs “forbearance” from the requirement to pay the fee, but it would not protect them from contrary decisions in the future. In fact, two FCC members warned in dissenting opinions that a new Internet tax was imminent.

Most state regulations require car insurance as a mandatory requirement.However, no applicant or policy holder would like to spend extra money on an area like car insurance.Considering current economic conditions, most applicants would be willing to save as much money they can on aspects like car insurance.Effective quote comparison is the best way to obtain cheapest car insurance rates.An applicant should look to obtain insurance quotes from multiple insurance dealers active in the market.An applicant can choose the best possible car insurance deal with low premiums and maximum coverage with proper quote comparison.

“We’ve all paid the price for lenders who sold mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, and buyers who knew they couldn’t afford them. That’s why we need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior. Rules to prevent financial fraud, or toxic dumping, or faulty medical devices, don’t destroy the free market. They make the free market work better. […]

I’m confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency looking over his shoulder. But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women differently from men. […]

So if you’re a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers’ deposits. You’re required to write out a “living will” that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail – because the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again. And if you’re a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can’t afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.” - President Obama

There are a lot of games that can be done in order to develop a child’s mental capabilities. Since most games such as Grateful Dead cornhole game has some rules and regulations that need to be followed as well a certain goal, kids will most likely think of ways on how to end up successful. It will also increase a child’s sense of concentration and their ability to follow instructions well. Games that will require physical interaction and strength can also help maintain the good condition of the brain. Oxygen intake during physical activities increase thus the brain acquires enough oxygen.

The
long-awaited decision means that the mushroom can be cultivated and
sold without passing through the agency’s regulatory process — making it
the first CRISPR-edited organism to receive a green light from the US
government.

“The research community will be
very happy with the news,” says Caixia Gao, a plant biologist at the
Chinese Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Genetics and Developmental
Biology in Beijing, who was not involved in developing the mushroom. “I
am confident we’ll see more gene-edited crops falling outside of
regulatory authority.”

The mushroom did not trigger USDA oversight because it does not
contain foreign DNA from ‘plant pests’ such as viruses or bacteria. Such
organisms were necessary for genetically modifying plants in the 1980s
and 1990s, when the US government developed its framework for regulating
GMOs. But newer gene-editing techniques that do not involve plant pests
are quickly supplanting the old tools.

Statist and Anarchist #026: Statism

Government is the oldest (and most successful) pyramid scheme ever. Just convince people that the best way to run society is to give total power and control to a select few individuals, and voila, instant profit! It’s a scam so blatant it’s any wonder that people haven’t caught onto it by now.

“Obama is right on both fronts. Clean policies not only offer necessary protections, they stimulate jobs.

From Scotland to Shanghai to Sao Paolo, the world is moving decisively toward a clean technology conversion and the jobs that come with it for urgent environmental, security and competitiveness reasons.

Unbiased research is clear:

A Deutsche Bank report in July found that ”countries with more ‘TLC’ – transparency, longevity and certainty – in their climate policy frameworks will attract more investment and build new, clean industries, technologies and jobs faster than their policy-lagging counterparts.” The United States was singled out as a laggard.

A report by the University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy Research Institute showed that EPA-mandated clean tech upgrades to America’s Eisenhower-era power plant fleet will generate about 290,000 net new domestic jobs a year in each of the next five years.

Two Citi Investment Research reports showed that boosting automobile fuel economy standards will boost automakers’ variable profits and sales – especially for the Detroit 3 – and also boost US-based suppliers of fuel-savings technologies. In fact, GM is already pushing to export Michigan-made Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids to China, the world’s largest auto market, later this year.

Several recent news accounts (see here and here) point to a lack of clear policy in the U.S. – and its presence elsewhere – as a central reason other countries’ clean tech industries are swiftly eclipsing U.S. firms’ market share. And when American Electric Power this summer abandoned its pioneering effort to capture carbon dioxide from an existing coal-burning power plant, the New York Times reported: “The technology had been heralded as the quickest solution to help the coal industry weather tougher federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions. But Congressional inaction on climate change diminished the incentives that had spurred A.E.P. to take the leap.””